USA
March & April 2005
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Beer:
as
used and endorsed by
Battlefield Band
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Friday,
25th March.
Ashville
North Carolina is a Mecca in this part of The
U.S for Music, Arts, and Crafts and accordingly
has a Beautiful Arts centre and several prestigious
music festivals. Jim Magill – who organised
this concert, runs these festival/workshops
and he brings in top class teachers. But tonight
we are concerned with our gig, which is sold
out and very enjoyable. Afterwards we go to
Café Soleil downtown where there is a
big flamenco session and some people from the
show. Incidentally, there is a beer brewed in
Ashville called Gaelic ale and emblazoned on
the front of the bottle is a picture of a bearded
piper. If you drink an awful lot of this stuff,
this piper looks a wee bit like one of the MacDonald’s
of Glenuig – a family of great pipers
from which Iain, my predecessor in Battlefield
band, comes. Now the piper on the bottle does
not really look like Iain, Allan, or Dr. Angus
as such, but more like a theoretical fourth
brother. Like Zeppo Marx perhaps. So when in
North Carolina, Drink the beer with Zeppo MacDonald
on the bottle: But only in excess.
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| Saturday,
26th March
We continue
our mini-tour of Appalachia with a trip through the
smoky mountains to Knoxville Tennessee and the Laurel
Theatre. The Laurel sits among the University of Tennessee
and much of the capacity crowd are professors holding
titles of various lengths – We are an erudite
mob. Anyway the gig is great but tomorrow is Easter
Sunday and a day off so we need to find out two things:
Is Dollywood open on Easter Sunday and do we qualify
for a family ticket. What a family - the Batty Bunch
on their holidays...
Sunday,
27th March
We
decide to opt for another day in Ashville rather than
going to Dollywood – Dolly Parton’s theme
park in eastern Tennessee. So after brunch and a few
Bloody Marys we head off to the workshop of Chris
Abell, master flute and whistle maker. Chris makes
wooden Boehm system flutes and wooden whistles (www.abellflute.com).
Later on Pat, Alasdair, and myself go to Chris’s
for our tea, some tunes and a couple gallons of Zeppo
MacDonald’s best bitter.
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Martini
Sir? |
Monday,
28 March.
Today is a very long drive to Williamsburg
Virginia for tomorrows gig so after eight hours of
driving we are lucky enough to be staying next to
a steak, seafood, and most importantly, Martini dealer.
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Tuesday,
29 March.
Williamsburg
Virginia is one of the first English Colonies in The
U.S and has been preserved as a conservation site
which ensures a steady stream of tourists, especially
American School trips, and also gives the town a somewhat
unreal feel. All of the Colonial buildings are immaculately
restored and the generally clean demeanour of the
town is reminiscent of Port Merion the 1960’s
television programme “The Prisoner.” “Be
seeing you”.
There is however a real town with living working people
outside the conservation zone and luckily they turn
up in great numbers to the concert, which is sold
out.
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I
am not a number! I am a free man! |
| Wednesday,
30th and Thursday, 31st March.
Today
is the first of two days at The Barns at Wolf Trap
in Vienna which is basically Washington D.C. A great
gig we have done many times. The crew here, especially
Bill and Rosie, are great professionals whom have
always made us welcome and everything run smoothly
here. Two nights here means we are free to go downtown
on the Thursday to see the brand new Museum of the
Native American and for Pat a great Toulouse Latrec
exhibition before we return to Vienna for the second
night at Wolf Trap.
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Friday,
1st April.
The
Sellersville Theatre in the town of the same name
near Philadelphia is an old venue with great programming
– of course – and this proximity to the
city of brotherly love affords the opportunity for
Pat’s cousin, Karl Mullen, to come along for
a visit. Karl is a great artist as well as singer/songwriter
– he wrote “Whiskey From the Field”
- and general good egg who also books acts for the
World Café Live in Philadelphia, PA
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Saturday,
2nd April.
The
Rankine brothers of Paisley and The Trinity College
Pipe Band of Hartford Connecticut are promoting the
concert tonight at the theatre of the Performing Arts.
The pipe band play before us and do a grand job. They
are using this show partially as a recruiting opportunity
as well as a fundraiser and social occasion. After
the Show the Band has organised a reception back at
the hotel which is very busy tonight for the other
event is the monthly convening in East Hartford of
an organisation I feel is best explained by their
own website: www.amplebeauties.com
- where size does matter.
Sunday,
3rd April.
Sunday
afternoon at Godfrey Daniels in Bethlehem Pennsylvania.
The American Clocks went forward last night so we
lost an hour of sleep but still made it to Bethleham
in time for a Reuben sandwich and a couple of pints
in O’Keefes across the road before the gig.
Godfrey Daniel’s is a well established venue
on the American acoustic scene run entirely by volunteers
many of which are great characters who head across
the road for a few jars afterwards so all in all a
very sociable day. |
Rob
rides into town:
"this town ain't big enough for two techs..."
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